< Spiritualism in the Provinces (continued from page 10-99) >
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Eyeless Mollusca
Sir,—I do not think the matter of great consequence, but I was quite aware of the facts mentioned by Mr. Carter-.Blake of the ocelli of the genus Pecten, and of the sensibility of the oyster to light; and in my note to you accompaupying the paper, “What May be Known of God,” I mentioned those facts as exceptions to the general statement, which is true. Perhaps I should have said most of the bivalve mollusca.
I mentioned also in my note, incidentally, regarding the Bacon-Shakespeare question, that the 135th and 136th sonnets of Shakespeare seem to have been written by one whose Christian name was William.
In my paper “Prochis” is a misprint for “Proclus.”
October 25th.
Form Manifestations
Sir,—Dr. Wyld refers in your last to his limited experience, and infers that the medium and spirit form are the same thing, suddenly transformed, which really means “doubting all mediums,” yet asking Mr. Joad and Mir. Massey to corroborate previous assertions of mine that they are two separate forms. Now what does this mean? Are these gentlemen to be judges of me, and of what they may not have had the same facilities of beholding?
On the 20th January last, at Signor Rondi’s, Miss Cook was stripped of all her clothing by Mrs. Louisa Andrews, and other ladies; then a large fur coat belonging to Mr. Green, a visitor, was placed on her, and she was brought forth at once from a back room into the stance room, and placed behind two curtains (used for a cabinet). She took her scat on a chair. Her own clothing, forming a bundle, was put in the opposite corner of the room to the cabinet. A circle of seven or eight persons sat round the cabinet, and in ton minutes the form “Lillie,” with a profusion of white drapery, appeared at the opening of the curtain m dim light, and Mrs. Andrews wrote: “In this seance I am sure there was no deception. I was permitted to place my hand upon the head and face of Miss Cook, which were very warm and overheated, and whilst I felt them stone cold hands patted mine, and took firm hold of my arm up to the shoulder with larger and firmer hands than the medium’s, and while my sister placed her hand on Miss Cook’s forehead, the back of her hand was kissed,” &c. Cannot Dr. Wyld believe that seance and the writer of it, and does he not see that transformation suddenly was impossible ,? Or does he want the two gentlemen to confirm it before he is satisfied?
Again, on the 31st of March 1 took Miss Cook to Mr. Pletcher’s, and had an “absolute test” inside the cabinet. Mrs. Fletcher held the medium, whilst I, at the same moment, hold and was talking with the spirit form outside, in the presence of three strangers, who signed their names—see article, 18th April newspaper—and 1 ask, could this be a sudden illusion, or does it require Messrs. Joad and Massey to confirm what I write when other persons have already signed?
Only three weeks ago, at 33, Museum-street, when Miss Cook was in the cabinet in trance, Messrs. Joad and Massey heard Lillie call me from them to put my hand on the medium’s head. I did so, and Lillie formed visibly over the medium’s lap, and then kissed me, whilst my hand never left the medium’s head.
All this is “water on the duck’s back,” and in time, when Messrs. Joad and Massey write their own reports, I suppose you, Dr. Wyld, will still retain your unbelief. The question now is, How is the second form compiled or created out of the medium, and can instantly vanish with its drapery?
Charles Blackburn.
Parkfield, Didsbury, near Manchester, Nov., 1879.
The Temple of Dambool
Mr. Martheze informs us that while he was in Ceylon he did not see much worth noting, except the Temple of Dambool, which contains the colossal statues of the ancient kings and priests of Ceylon. The largest statue is twenty-seven feet long, and in a recumbent posture. It is said to have been hewn out of the solid rock in one night by spirits. He also saw the sacred Bo-tree, planted about 2,000 years ago, and still green. At the time he was in Ceylon, it so happened that there was not a single good fakir in the island, so he witnessed no genuine psychical phenomena among the natives. One of the Buddhist priests in Ceylon recently wrote to us for information about Spiritualism, and for a supply of copies of The Spiritualist.
<Untitled> (Mr. John S. Farmer is about to bring...)
Mr. John S. Farmer is about to bring out a book entitled Spiritualism as a New Basis of Belief.
Mr. John Camplan, secretary to tire Manchester and Salford Spiritualist’s Society, wishes to make known that on the ninth of this month Mr. Thomas Walker, the Australian trance medium, will give two addresses in the largo hall, Pendleton Club, Broughton-road, Pendleton, Manchester—the first at 2.30 p.m., the second at 6.30 p.m.
Editor's notes
- ↑ OU-RA-Head-Chief by unknown author
- ↑ Coloral by unknown author
- ↑ Eyeless Mollusca by Farquhar, J. W., London Spiritualist, No. 376, November 7, 1879, p. 226
- ↑ Form Manifestations by Blackburn Charles, London Spiritualist, No. 376, November 7, 1879, p. 226
- ↑ The Temple of Dambool by unknown author, London Spiritualist, No. 376, November 7, 1879, p. 226
- ↑ Mr. John S. Farmer is about to bring... by unknown author, London Spiritualist, No. 376, November 7, 1879, p. 226
Sources
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London Spiritualist, No. 376, November 7, 1879, p. 226